<p>With the budget crunch in CA some state schools are not taking winter admits. Best to just call the school to see what will happen.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>What is a SIR contract?</p>
<p>SIR= statement of intent to register. it’s the acceptance of an admissions offer, and it includes the specific conditions of admission (eg., you cannot receive any grade lower than a ‘C’, etc.). </p>
<p>it seems that some kids’ conditions are different than others but i always assumed everybody’s contract contained more or less the same conditions that needed to be satisfied…</p>
<p>My two cents-
Have your DS continue to communicate w/Admissions. A face to face appointment may help in this instance, as the decision may come down to a discretionary one due to the fact that it is a D and not an F.
A thought, do you have paperwork supporting the scoring is off by such a small fraction? Do you have a letter, or can you get a letter, from another science teacher at his HS? Did he win an award from the Science Department that might show his true abilities in Science? While DS is seeking a degree in Political Science, the school still wants the A-G grades to fall within the A-C parameters.
G’Luck!
APOL-a Mom</p>
<p>Thanks APOL! Yes, we have the gradebook print out, a letter from the Principal,no he wasn’t an award winner in science but he did have decent grades (A& B) in both Bio and Chem. We’re planning to take a road trip to meet with someone in the position of decision making to apply a name to the numbers so to speak. I’d like to think the admissions personel can see he had a B for Fall and a D in spring and think average of the two.</p>
<p>It really cheeses me off that a kid who has proven his worth can have something as life-changing as a college acceptance rescinded for one bad grade. Haven’t these kids gone through enough? Cripes, give them a break already. Any college that would do this to a kid for one D can kiss my grits.</p>
<p>I know Mantori. When I read the stress these kids in California are under from this education system, I’m really stunned. It’s just too much.</p>
<p>Welcome to the machine. There’s a good reason why I used to be extremely jaded with the bureaucratic sh**-heap that is the education system.</p>
<p>Just a different point of view, and I know I’ll be flamed, but I think the standards, rules, requirements, cutoffs…whatever you want to call them…matter.</p>
<p>I think it’s good the OP and her son are pursuing this and maybe the extenuating circumstances will be enough to avoid the rescission.</p>
<p>But I do feel it’s not unreasonable for a school to say, "We’re accepting you under these specific conditions, and if you don’t live up to your end of the bargain, we reserve the right to also renege on ours.</p>
<p>Ok, flame away, I can take it. :)</p>
<p>Nah. Don’t have the energy to flame someone.</p>
<p>I hope nothing like this ever happens to your kids. Have a good one. Hawks win! Chicagoans celebrate.</p>
<p>momofsongbird - I agree with you and anyway that’s the way it has to be - there has to be a cutoff at some point. Your post isn’t saying anything negative about the OP’s son and regardless, the contract isn’t firm on the point.</p>
<p>3down - I think the contract states something like …MAY be rescinded. (i.e. not WILL be) (right??) which means there’s some subjectiveness so it’s worth seeing what can be done. From what I’ve heard (not first hand) they do sometimes accept people who received a D and in your son’s case it’s not an extreme example - he barely missed getting a C and at that it was only the second semester so it’s worth giving it a shot. The downside is that the UCs have no shortage of applicants, especially this year, which might impact how they go on a decision like this.</p>
<p>It may help if you also bring material showing how he’s already enrolled in a summer session of the class if he is (I don’t know first hand if this’ll help but it seems logical). If it were me I’d also approach them with some understanding of why they have some of these rules but that he really wants to attend the school, his other grades demonstrate his capabilities, he had this one issue (just barely) and is correcting it immediately. Ask them for their help in guiding your S as to what he should do to achieve his goal of attending UCSD - i.e. get them on your side if possible. </p>
<p>The challenge might be in getting to someone in a decision making role face to face. </p>
<p>Again - good luck with it.</p>
<p>I won’t flame you-I’d love to be in any other position with my kid than this. He’s never flunked a thing in his life until now and even this is a D. His teacher had a policy of allowing students with A’s or B’s going into the final to skip the final so they did not have to take it. My son unfortunately did not fall into that category, taking the final could only hurt him and it did. So over 5 points in the class his college career may be sunk. We get that. But we’re hoping that someone can see that 5 points shouldn’t wipe out the rest of his work. We know they had a spot for him and we are hoping that they want to keep him in it. Admissions said it was better than an F…</p>
<p>All i can say is good luck</p>
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<p>I don’t understand. How could taking the final only hurt him? If he had gotten an A, B, or even C on it, wouldn’t that have raised his grade above a D?</p>
<p>He had a C going into the final but the final (his poor score on it) dropped him to the D. Even if he would have gotten 100% his grade would not have been higher than a C but since he failed the test his grade ended up being a D. It really doesn’t matter at this point-he has a D and he’s subject to rescission. He’s at the mercy of the admissions dept. and we’re hoping for the best. I just keep hoping I’ll hear about someone who has gone through this before and has had his admission upheld.</p>
<p>^^^As someone who attended UCSD long before it was this competitive, I’ve got my fingers crossed. I think it’s a great school.</p>
<p>Also, even if the unthinkable happens, he can still recover and do great on another path - maybe back through UCSD at some point if he wants.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, best of luck.</p>
<p>3down, retaking the class at CC this summer at a CC will only help if he does well in it. If your son gets another D or an F it could make the situation worse. You need to try to understand why he failed the final exam in Physics when so much was at stake. Since the A and B students were excused from the exam the teacher knew that only the weaker students in the class would be taking it and probably made up a test that was less challenging than it might otherwise have been. The steady deterioration in his performance throughout the year suggests that as the material became more difficult he reached a point where he just stopped getting it. </p>
<p>I received a BS is Astronomy and one of the reasons I went to medical school for an MD rather than apply to PhD programs in Astronomy is that I realized I had reached the limits of what I could do in Math and Physics and knew I would not succeed in Graduate level courses in those subjects. As a Political Science major he does not need to be able to do college level work in Physics and you may want to confirm that without taking the Physics course at a CC his offer of admission will be withdrawn by UCSD before taking the risk of failing the course at a CC.</p>
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<p>Unless UCSD is in a very forgiving mood, retaking the course over the summer may be his only option. This is what I wrote about a similar case back on post #9: </p>
<p>“A couple of years ago a kid from our school was headed to UCSD but got a senior year D in calculus. UCSD didn’t rescind outright but put his acceptance “on-hold” and told him to make it right by retaking the course over the summer. He did not retake, so the end result was he was rescinded. I’ve lost track of the kid, but last I heard he still had not enrolled in any college.”</p>
<p>If it were my kid I’d have him take the summer course and work with him intensively for hours every night, hire tutors, and do whatever it takes to make sure he masters the material and passes the course with a respectable grade. </p>
<p>It’s true in higher level physics and math courses that natural aptitude plays an increasinigly important role in how far and fast one can advance. But for high school physics any reasonably bright kid can get through it with enough proper teaching, hard study, and endless drill on problem sets.</p>
<p>Definitely hire a tutor, if possible. </p>
<p>Most people have deficits in very specific areas and one on one work is really helpful to fill in those blanks.</p>
<p>momofsongbird: i totally agree with your post#29. </p>
<p>i also don’t think that california college-bound kids are under any more stress than kids from any other state. it’s a hard process for all of them in the 21st century.</p>